5 ms·

Isn’t this generally true in other industries too? Small cafes can’t compete with Starbucks, there are no mom and pop pharmacies, small grocery stores can’t com

by akudha 5y ago

Isn’t this generally true in other industries too? Small cafes can’t compete with Starbucks, there are no mom and pop pharmacies, small grocery stores can’t compete with huge/ugly chains… At this rate, the entire planet will be ruled by a few dozen mega corporations. This sucks, but I don’t know what can be done to mitigate the situation.

Beaver117 5y ago
Well, shoplifting and other petty theft has been increasing
chillingeffect 5y ago
(Most of) us don't have to work for them and (most of) us don't have to buy from them. If we mindfully shop looking at the big picture, we can support smaller operations.
- akudha 5y ago
  When I lived in NY (upper east side) there were multiple pharmacies within walking distance. Nearly every corner had Starbucks (I used to give directions using Starbucks - not making this up). Number of small cafes or pharmacies within walking distance? Big fat zero. This situation will happen first in big cities, then proceed to smaller areas too (as long as there is profit). I was looking for an apartment. Guess what? Multiple buildings in the area I looked at, owned by the same company. Consolidation is not new. But the scale at which it is happening is, and it is terrifying. Just 4 companies control 80% of American meat supply, for example.
otikik 5y ago
> I don’t know what can be done to mitigate the situation. Something about the means of production, perhaps.
perl4ever 5y ago
>Small cafes can’t compete with Starbucks Why do you say this? I don't randomly change pharmacies for my prescriptions, so I can't think of a "mom and pop pharmacy" off hand, but non-Starbucks coffee shops are everywhere. This has been my experience everywhere I've been in eastern states in the US from Virginia to New York. My perception is that Starbucks is primarily a place to get milkshakes, and their coffee is undrinkable, and their food is worse. Most other coffee shops do much better in those two categories. Some are also chains, but many aren't.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  That, and Starbucks and independent coffee shops sell a different product.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    I think everybody sells a slightly different product. I see, and other people have also noticed, that similar businesses often cluster together. How could this be explained, except by them adjusting their offerings on a bunch of dimensions so that they sort customers between them and avoid direct competition?
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  Starbucks will set up shop next to small cafes and offer lower prices until they've driven the other shop to close up. Once this is done, they will raise the prices back to standard. Starbucks is a great case study because they can even afford to give away free coffee long enough to shut down any small business - they have an unbeatable advantage. Many small cafes will simply shut down and not even fight when a Starbucks pops up nearby. It's the same with Walmart, Amazon, Google, etc - once a company becomes big enough, it's literally impossible for small business to compete. Quality suffers, and consumers don't get fair prices that come from healthy market competition. Everything is standardized at the largest scale at which the monopoly operates, so Starbucks in bumfuck, Arkansas charges the same as Manhattan or Beverly Hills. This creates vulnerabilities in the ecosystem of markets that are similar to the dangers of monocrop cultivation, with complex failure modes that endanger entire market segments. If Starbucks fails, coffee everywhere suffers. If Microsoft fails, the long tail effects endanger western civilization. Monopolies aren't just a matter of paychecks and fairness for the little people, but are threats to the well-being of civilizations as systems and supply chains have single points of failure. It may be desirable to cap the wealth and/or market share of a given company. Once a company achieves its legal limit, it can no longer advertise or market existing products, or something like that. This could force markets to create interoperability standards to achieve maximum roi, diversifying competition in all markets, and create better incentives for long term supply chain security. It also removes many opportunities for graft and corruption.
tech_tuna 5y ago
No worries, according to Bezos, most of us will be living off-Earth soon anyway.

by akudha 5y ago

Beaver117 5y ago

Well, shoplifting and other petty theft has been increasing

chillingeffect 5y ago

(Most of) us don't have to work for them and (most of) us don't have to buy from them. If we mindfully shop looking at the big picture, we can support smaller operations.

akudha 5y ago
When I lived in NY (upper east side) there were multiple pharmacies within walking distance. Nearly every corner had Starbucks (I used to give directions using Starbucks - not making this up). Number of small cafes or pharmacies within walking distance? Big fat zero. This situation will happen first in big cities, then proceed to smaller areas too (as long as there is profit). I was looking for an apartment. Guess what? Multiple buildings in the area I looked at, owned by the same company. Consolidation is not new. But the scale at which it is happening is, and it is terrifying. Just 4 companies control 80% of American meat supply, for example.

otikik 5y ago

> I don’t know what can be done to mitigate the situation. Something about the means of production, perhaps.

perl4ever 5y ago

>Small cafes can’t compete with Starbucks Why do you say this? I don't randomly change pharmacies for my prescriptions, so I can't think of a "mom and pop pharmacy" off hand, but non-Starbucks coffee shops are everywhere. This has been my experience everywhere I've been in eastern states in the US from Virginia to New York. My perception is that Starbucks is primarily a place to get milkshakes, and their coffee is undrinkable, and their food is worse. Most other coffee shops do much better in those two categories. Some are also chains, but many aren't.

dehrmann 5y ago
That, and Starbucks and independent coffee shops sell a different product.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  I think everybody sells a slightly different product. I see, and other people have also noticed, that similar businesses often cluster together. How could this be explained, except by them adjusting their offerings on a bunch of dimensions so that they sort customers between them and avoid direct competition?
robbedpeter 5y ago
Starbucks will set up shop next to small cafes and offer lower prices until they've driven the other shop to close up. Once this is done, they will raise the prices back to standard. Starbucks is a great case study because they can even afford to give away free coffee long enough to shut down any small business - they have an unbeatable advantage. Many small cafes will simply shut down and not even fight when a Starbucks pops up nearby. It's the same with Walmart, Amazon, Google, etc - once a company becomes big enough, it's literally impossible for small business to compete. Quality suffers, and consumers don't get fair prices that come from healthy market competition. Everything is standardized at the largest scale at which the monopoly operates, so Starbucks in bumfuck, Arkansas charges the same as Manhattan or Beverly Hills. This creates vulnerabilities in the ecosystem of markets that are similar to the dangers of monocrop cultivation, with complex failure modes that endanger entire market segments. If Starbucks fails, coffee everywhere suffers. If Microsoft fails, the long tail effects endanger western civilization. Monopolies aren't just a matter of paychecks and fairness for the little people, but are threats to the well-being of civilizations as systems and supply chains have single points of failure. It may be desirable to cap the wealth and/or market share of a given company. Once a company achieves its legal limit, it can no longer advertise or market existing products, or something like that. This could force markets to create interoperability standards to achieve maximum roi, diversifying competition in all markets, and create better incentives for long term supply chain security. It also removes many opportunities for graft and corruption.

tech_tuna 5y ago

No worries, according to Bezos, most of us will be living off-Earth soon anyway.